Press Release Written by Mitchell Coll
QUEENS, N.Y. - - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) East Region Poll has Queens College ranked eighth and the Wilmington University baseball team ninth as the two regional opponents collided for a nonconference matchup on Wednesday, which saw the Knights able to sneak past the Wildcats, 9-8.
The loss snaps the Wildcats' 11-game-win streak.
The Wildcats pitched the bullpen today as nine pitchers pitched at Hennekens Stadium. Kyle Maxwell got the start and pitched one inning. Tyler Reinert, Zach Czarnecki, and Dom Grady led the Wildcat pitchers in strikeouts with two in one inning of work.
The Knights got on the board quickly with a triple and a double, which scored one run. Maxwell had runners on early but minimized the damage with a successful pickoff play at third. The Wildcats tied it up in the top of the second inning, sparked by a two-out double by JJ Killen into right center. Erik Grady doubled to left center, scoring Killen, as the bats woke up in the second inning with three Wildcat hits.
The Wildcats continued the offensive into the third inning as the Wildcats tacked on three more runs. Adrian Jimenez started things off with a lead-off single. Jimenez moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from CJ Deery. McDonald then stepped up to the plate and earned an RBI with a base-clearing double down the left-field line, scoring Jimenez. With McDonald on second base, Nick Nocella came to the plate and homered the opposite way to right field as the Wildcats extended their lead 4-1.
Two fielding errors in the bottom of the fifth inning allowed the Knights to tie the game back to 4-apiece. The Knights scored twice in the inning, one of the runs being unearned. The Knights then extended their lead to five runs in the bottom of the sixth on four hits and one Wildcat error.
In the top of the eighth, the Wildcats finally had their bats awake as they scored three runs on four hits but left bases loaded. The Wildcats loaded the bases with one out. Trevor Adamo and Trisitan Schoendienst reached the bases with singles, then Tyler Pirrung also singled through the right side. Mikey Rodriguez, with a hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, picked up an RBI in the process. Jimenez then singled through the right side, which scored Pirrung and Schoendienst.
The Wildcats brought the game within one run in the eighth, and Dom Grady came on to pitch and gave the Wildcats a chance by allowing no runs and striking out two Knight batters. However, the Wildcat's bats stayed quiet in their last chance in the top of the ninth.
Up Next:
The Wildcats will be fifteen minutes down the road at Goldey-Beacom College on Saturday, April 15, as the two teams square off in a CACC South Division doubleheader. The games are slated to start at 12:00 p.m.